Alternative futures of secondgeneration immigrants on the Finnish labour market in 2020

Abstrakti

Most of the second-generation immigrants in Finland are still rather young, but they will begin to enter the labour market in larger numbers within the next ten years. Thus it is interesting to consider their possible futures on the labour market in advance. This article focuses on the factors infl uencing the labour market performance of second-generation immigrants in Finland, and on the pathways to alternative possible futures.

The data for this study was mainly gathered by means of a futures workshop, a qualitative method of studying the future. It was supplemented by a questionnaire and interviews, and in total there were 13 informants.

According to the workshop participants the factors which most infl uence the labour market opportunities of second-generation immigrants are social networks, attitudes, structural obstacles, level of education, language skills, personality, appearance, and family. The scenarios created on the basis of the fi ndings of the workshop and the questionnaire portray alternative futures, and show that positive as well as negative developments are possible.

The overall tone of the fi ndings was quite optimistic, and there seemed to be a belief in equal opportunities. This is in contrast with findings in other European countries, and it would be useful to address possible problems before they become engrained.